Thatcher’s funeral ‘political stunt’ aimed at bolstering Tory party

Pall bearers transfer the coffin of British former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from the hearse into the Church of St. Clement Danes during her ceremonial funeral in central London on April 17, 2013 (AFP Photo / Carl Court) / AFP

The expensive funeral of former UK Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, is not a burial of an individual, but a political stunt “to cover up” her “ill policies” and “bolster” the Tories, Charlie Kimber from Socialist Workers Party, told RT.

Security has been on high alert in London on Wednesday where the
funeral of Margaret Thatcher took place. Britain's first and only
female Prime Minister died last week at the age of 87, following a
stroke.

The national secretary of the UK’s Socialist Workers Party, Charlie
Kimber, believes Thatcher doesn’t deserve such honors, with the
grand ceremony reminding him of a feast in time of plague.

RT:With Margaret Thatcher put to rest, what can you say
about the political legacy she left for Britain and the whole
world?

Charlie Kimber: Well, I think we’re seeing a turbo-charged
version of Thatcher’s policies at the moment. And, in fact, the
present conservative government under David Cameron is going much
further that even Thatcher dared.

But we should recognize that what Thatcher represented was a big
step backwards in British society. It meant an assault upon the
conditions that working people in Britain have won since World War
II. It represented friendship towards dictatorship and oppression
across the world. We remember that she called Nelson Mandela of the
African National Congress, for example, a terrorist. She was great
friend of Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean dictator. She was a good
friend of Ronald Reagan, one of the most right-wing US leaders. And
she represented a big step backwards, which we still haven’t
recovered from.

Her foreign policies ramped up a vast increase in the nuclear
arsenals of the West. They were prepared to use force together in
the Falklands where a war was fought with over 900 deaths, both
Argentinean and British. Not for any decent reason, but a war that
was fought to save Thatcher’s face and to bolster British
imperialism. And we should recognize that she was a warmonger, who
found a blood brother in Ronald Reagan.

RT:Thatcher’s funeral cost around £10 million. Do you
think such cost was warranted taking the difficult economic
situation in the UK into account?

CK: I think it’s quite significant that in Britain itself and
internationally there’s a growing sense that what this funeral was
about was a political stunt. It wasn’t about a burial of an
individual. It was a political stunt orchestrated in order to cover
up the reality of what her policies meant and to canonize
Thatcherism – the idea that working people must pay for the crisis
that presently is engulfing the world. We remember her attack on
the miners.

This is an orchestrated political event. £10 million spent on it
at a time when the British people are being told that they must cut
back on vital welfare services and must accept job losses; they
must accept cuts. Disabled people are being told that they are no
longer entitled to the benefits they formerly received. And instead
money is lavished not on the funeral of an individual, but on a
political event, which is designed to bolster the conservative
party under David Cameron and that tradition, which, regrettably,
Tony Blair and New Labor continued as well, of putting the market
first in everything and peoples interests right at the back of the
queue.

RT:All the comments you make about Thatcher are
negative. Is there’s really nothing positive you can say about her
reign?

CK: I’m afraid you won’t find me saying positive things
about Margaret Thatcher. What I will remember, I suppose, is the
comradeship and the fellowship of those, who resisted Margaret
Thatcher from when she came into from 1979 to when she was driven
out in 1990. And I remember very well the Poll Tax rebellion, which
saw 14 million people refuse to pay the tax that Thatcher had
introduced, the riots in central London. And this was what brought
Thatcher down. And what I’ll remember is that those of us, who
fought against her and ultimately defeated Thatcher, and I hope
we’ll be able to do the same thing to the present crop of Tories
and the policies they represent.